“How can success make us arrogant or failure lead us astray, when we participate in the sufferings of God by living in this world?” Born on February 4, 1906, Dietrich Bonhoeffer began his theological education in 1923 to the mild surprise of his upper middle-class family. Following what he would later call a sort of conversion experience, Bonhoeffer intensified his focus on contemporary theological problems facing the church. With the ascendancy of the Nazi party in Germany in the early...

This is just a brief note to mark today the third anniversary of the PowerBlog. We’ve worked hard to bring a variety of viewpoints and thoughtful perspectives to bear on a range of topics, with an attempt to keep the focus generally on issues we think would be of interest to our readers. The last few months have seen a number of new contributors crack the PowerBlog lineup, and we’re pleased with the results. We hope you are too. In...

If you’re looking for the latest on how “Sensationalist Reporting Muddles Catholic Social Teaching”, check out these recent contributions: Yesterday, the New York Times ran a perceptive op-ed, noting the negative consequences of relaxed strictures on items such as sex and eating meat on Fridays. The author uses economic thinking to justify more traditional mores: Larry Iannaccone, an economist at George Mason University who has studied religions, notes that some of the most successful, like Jehovah’s Witnesses or Pentecostal Christians,...

Late last month I argued that recipients of the federal government’s stimulus package “should use this rebate money as they see fit, since they are the ones most familiar with their own situations and their own needs. Consider giving part of the money to charity or saving, paying off debt or investing.” Now other voices are giving similar advice, mending saving rather than spending. Rick Haglund, a Michigan business columnist for the Grand Rapids Press, notes that “Some saving measures...

A few weeks ago I blogged about the California homeschooling ruling. (And Chris Banescu wrote about it in an Acton Commentary.) As you may have heard, the ruling was vacated so the threat has gone away, for now. But in the meantime, Acton senior fellow Jennifer Morse offered some interesting thoughts on the matter at ToTheSource. Especially striking to me was this passage:”Perhaps this California homeschool dispute represents a larger conflict over the future of society. Whose children are these,...

This evening, I attended a showing of Michael Moore’s movie Sicko… I wasn’t expecting much, so maybe it was easy to exceed my expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised that the movie wasn’t far more painful for me to watch. Although certainly not without its flaws, it has something to add. And the movie was well-made, humorous in places, poignant in others– effective and provocative. Moore is quite critical of panies and HMO’s– and plimentary of the health care systems...

When John concluded his gospel, he supposed that if all of Jesus’ doings were written down, “that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” The last two millennia have seen quite a bit of change, to be sure. Christians have done their best to make e true, filling the world with writings on the life of Jesus, the biblical revelation, and the implications of the gospel for every aspect of all walks...

With the United Methodist General Conference only weeks away, Bristol House just released Taking Back The United Methodist Church. Tooley is the United Methodist Action Director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy and has been a passionate advocate for theological integrity and reform within United Methodism for two decades. The book provides an excellent overview of some of the most egregious separation of some United Methodist leaders from Christian Scripture and traditions, including an all out embrace of a...

The Roman Catholic Church’s authoritative reference source, the Annuario Pontificio (Papal Yearbook), is published in March of every year. It is a weighty book in more ways than one: prises of over 2,500 pages, has a very limited print production of 10,000 copies, and contains just about every bit of information you would want to know about the make-up of the Church. The publication of the 2008 Annuario made news earlier this week when, in an interview with the Vatican...

Catholic institutions provide a large percentage of the worldwide care devoted to those infected by HIV. bined with the Church’s stand on the immorality of contraceptive use, puts it at the center of debates about AIDS and condoms. There have been several cases over the last two decades of criticism of religious organizations promising their faith dimension for the sake of some other end (often government dollars). At the intersection of these two trends is a new controversy over Catholic...